The invention relates to a crawler web for crawler belts of crawler vehicles.
Various embodiments of crawler webs are known. Crawler webs consisting completely of steel or aluminum have been disclosed, as have those which have a basic body made of aluminum to which a wear-resistant cutting edge is fastened by screwing or, for example, fastened during the extrusion of an aluminum profile (see, in this respect, Swiss Patent Specification CH 644,558 and European Patent Specification EP 0,381,642 B1).
The disadvantage of a steel web is that it is too heavy. On the other hand, an aluminum web, when used under rough operating conditions, is subject to pronounced wear and this may cause the web to rupture. Aluminum webs having incorporated or screwed-in steel inserts are, in known embodiments, costly in terms of production and the exchange of worn structural units.
European Patent Specification EP 0,414,208 B1 describes a steel crawler web in which manufacturing problems otherwise customary in the case of steel webs are avoided. In this embodiment, high wear resistance and a simple design are gained at the expense of a higher weight, as compared with aluminum webs. For this purpose, the steel web has, in cross section, a U-bow with two U-legs and, between them, a connecting web, the first U-leg having, as an extension, a connecting leg, guided inward via a bend, and, after a further bend, an adjoining blade approximately parallel to the U-legs. The embodiment is distinguished in that the second U-leg is also bent inward and is welded to the first connecting leg, so as to form, in cross section, a house-like cavity beyond which the first U-leg projects. In addition to the high weight of this embodiment, another disadvantage is that, when the cutting edge or blade of the web becomes worn, the entire web may have to be replaced, thus resulting in high operating costs. Moreover, the web is designed for a hard underlying surface and is overdimensioned for less demanding applications.